on purpose

Idioms  

1. Deliberately, intentionally, as in He left the photo out of the story on purpose . Shakespeare's use of this idiom was among the earliest; it appears in The Comedy of Errors (4:3): “On purpose shut the doors against his way.”

2. accidentally on purpose . Seemingly accidentally but actually deliberately, as in She stepped on his foot accidentally on purpose . This generally jocular phrase was first recorded in 1862.

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Example Sentences

“Whenever you tell an old story, you change it, sometimes on purpose and sometimes in ways you don’t exactly control,” he writes.

From The Wall Street Journal

If you’re trying to get excited about vegetables, give yourself permission to make them delicious on purpose.

From Salon

NBA teams are increasingly losing games on purpose to improve their draft prospects and basketball must consider every possible remedy to stamp out deliberate "tanking," the league's chief said Saturday.

From Barron's

That also means Mom took a taxi home from the airport on purpose, just to avoid the FBI.

From Literature

There was only one thing Danny believed in more than magic, and it was that Pili loved him and would never have left him alone on purpose.

From Literature